Methodist Home for Children tracked staff-client interactions with a paper system that had to be compiled by hand at the end of the week. Their new system is tablet-based, enabling resident counselors to track interactions quickly and see visualizations of the data instantly. Their new software:
Is there data integral to your process that is difficult to use or even access? Methodist Home for Children is a non-profit organization helping clients (children in their care) in their group homes learn basic life skills.
Methodist Home used a paper-based system to track interactions between their clients and resident counselors. They had to keep track of the papers throughout the day and input all the data at the end of the week. They needed software to better track interactions with their clients.
Ideally, their software would be mobile so they could record information as soon as possible. Methodist Home collaborated with RoleModel to develop software optimized for tablets, allowing them to track interactions quickly and visualize the data. The resident counselors can input information through a quick set of taps and can make additional notes if needed. A client’s progress can be seen over a period of time through visuals of their past interactions.
Now, their resident counselors can interact with their clients, log data quickly, access charts to better understand their data, and make changes in real time rather than waiting to compile data from piles of paper.
Methodist Home for Children is a non-profit organization where children in their care gain critical life skills. Since 1899, they have provided care for children in North Carolina. They work in foster care, family preservation, and juvenile justice; they have 14 group homes in North Carolina. These homes work to set their clients on a track of growth—their clients are considered at risk and range from those that have been in trouble to those with learning, cognitive, or social disabilities. Regardless of their circumstances, Methodist Home serves those that need a boost to reach their full potential.
Methodist Home works with the clients in their care, usually 11-18 year-olds, to build skills through their multi-purpose intervention model. They build ten basic skills with additional skills beyond that—all with indicators of success or needing additional work.
"Just one chart tells our managers a whole lot about a staff member interacting with one or all of the kids. That's really powerful! That's what takes us hours to calculate right now (without the tool)."
Methodist Home’s intervention system helps clients build the skills they need to succeed. Resident counselors charted their interactions visually on paper, but with one piece of paper per client per day it was very labor intensive to roll all that data into a report to make a data-driven decision. Transferring the data from hardcopy to digital took upwards of two hours to complete every week in every house.
Working with hard copies presented a problem because there was no easy reporting on which resident counselor interacted with the client. Methodist Home tracked how interactions went and what skills the client was focusing on, but tracking everything on paper made data-driven decisions difficult. It was also hard to track privileges earned by the clients and the trends of each resident counselor's interactions.
Methodist Home worked with RoleModel Software to create a tablet-based progressive web app (PWA) to track interactions between clients and resident counselors. RoleModel collaborated with Methodist Home through in-person research sessions to develop a user experience that is intuitive, enabling fast input.
The system creates several types of reports during the month. Each client has daily and weekly reports of their total interactions, redirectives (when and how long they last), skills learned, economy (when in the day the interactions happen), and privileges earned. All can be visualized in charts and graphs instantly. The system also tracks staff reports—which clients the staff interacted with and what kinds of interactions they are having. Each facility has a daily chart to see what percentage of their clients are hitting their goals.
Reports are localized and can be viewed by client, by facility, and by admin charts. The data is synced and can be filtered to break down information, and filters will stay applied while switching between pages within reports.
Methodist Home’s system turned their paper-based motivation tracking into usable software so resident counselors can quickly track positive or corrective interactions, making getting reports and visualized charts easier. The program does not contain any unnecessary personal identifying information (PII) to protect their clients.
Additionally, security was a concern for Methodist Home. Their system restricts access—the software can only be accessed from certain devices, and only traffic from specified networks is allowed. The system also tracks resident counselors' interactions in their own profiles.
Methodist Home’s software reduces input time from two hours to fifteen minutes, increasing reporting effectiveness and improving analysis.Tracking interactions between resident counselors and clients is easier and more consistent, which lets Methodist Home use the gathered data to drive decisions. Streamlining reporting makes it easier to review information and to synthesize information across the home. The system is built with easy visualization of the input to show progress to clients, including a progress chart for the day.
In the future, Methodist Home hopes to share their software so that similar organizations can use their system of teaching and tracking clients' progress.
"This will be transformative once we get more sites using it and looking at this data and what it can tell us about the kids and staff. It is so user-friendly and intuitive, which is what we tried hard to do—and you accomplished."
